Moliere - 2007 * * * *

What a lovely foreign film based on the life of Moliere, the satirical and talented playwright and actor. Romain Duris does excellently as Jean-Baptise Poquelin (otherwise known as Moliere) who tries to get his plays noticed whilst also helping Monsieur Jourdain (who covered a debt for him that kept him out of prison) rehearse a special one act play that he will perform in secret to a beautiful widow named Celimene (the tantalizing Ludivine Sagnier ) behind his wife's back . Plans go wrong however when Moliere falls for Elmire ( Jourdain's wife) and realises the difficulty of his predicament.

I found so much to compare this to Shakespeare in Love and I found it a totally enjoyable and very funny film. Moliere appears to me to be one of those playwrights who was light years ahead of his rivals in wit and satire and this film very cleverly had Moliere's later characters coming up as real people before he decided to use them in his plays. I found my mum constantly saying 'so and so was a character in one of his later plays and this must be how he came up with the idea for using them.'

A great film to watch if you are feeling intellectual or just want to see something that makes you laugh and realise that even over 300 years ago there were still wonderfully brilliant individuals who made the world a better place.